Chief Blames Gov�t For Poor BECE Results

The Omanhene of Asebu traditional area and vice president of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, Okatakyi Dr. Amamfi VII is not comfortable with government’s inability to provide proper classroom blocks and learning materials for pupils in deprived communities which has resulted in most pupils learning in the scorching sun and recording poor Basic Education Certificate Examination results.

In an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE at the Asebu Palace in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese district of the Central Region, the Omanhene who doubles as a senior lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) bemoaned the situation where students in the cities get better facilities including laptops and other ICT related materials to compete with students in the remote areas who learn under deplorable conditions.

According to the senior lecturer, government is not being fair to students in deprived communities and wondered if such students are part of Ghana and write the same exams with students in the cities.

Dr. Amamfi expressed worry about the bad grades coming out from students in deprived areas as compared to students in the cities due to lack of teaching and learning materials, poor supervision and low motivated teachers and appealed to the government to address such issues.

Consequently, the Traditional Council has used its own funds to set-up a Senior High School (SHS) located at Amosima to help students in the area to continue their education after Junior High School.

The Omanhene called on government through the Education Ministry to as matter of urgency consider the chiefs and people of Asebu and add Amosima SHS to the 200 Community SHSs project the government is embarking on.

He said farming activities in the area have gone down due to the collapse of the lime factory resulting in continuous poverty in the area and called on the government to help the area to revive the factory which is the only factory in the traditional council to create employment for the youth and boost economic activities in the area.

According to the Omanhene, chiefs of the area are ready to offer free land to any investor who is willing to invest in the area so that they can offer employment to the people.

Dr. Amamfi observed that all the roads in the area are in very deplorable state and called on feeder roads to address road network problems in the Asebu traditional area.

Dr. Amamfi expressed sadness that there are three traditional areas constituting the Abura Asebu Kwamankese, but attention has always been on the district capital.

“They must ensure decentralization in such a way that some developments can also take place at Asebu and other traditional areas as well,” he added.